Violin Community News 2010, Op. 21

June 3, 2010 at 6:53 PM

World Busk for Haiti will take place from June 7 through June 13, with the aim of raising $50,000 to help rebuild music schools in earthquake-damaged regions of Haiti. The event was organized by Musequality, a United Kingdom-based charity that aims to bring music education to poor and developing countries. Musicians are asked to sign up and then go busking! The first Musequality World Busk involved 811 buskers in 75 locations in 17 countries on 7 continents, raising £14,719, according to Musequality, which supports projects in Uganda, South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, India and Thailand.

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The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography has added violinist Wallace Hartley, who famously played as Titanic sank, to its listings of 57,348 lives, according to BBC News. About 300 people are added every year – none of them living. Hartley's seven-man band played "Nearer, My God, to Thee," last before the ship sank on April 15, 1912, and he was found with his violin strapped to his body.

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University of Denver freshman Royce Lassley couldn't afford a high-quality fiddle, so he wrote to makers around the country, inquiring about instrument loans. His request caught the attention of luthier Charles Rufino of The Long Island Violin Shop, who then spoke to Lassley's teacher at the Lamont School of Music, Yumi Hwang-Williams. The result? Lassley, who had been playing on an instrument given to him by a previous teacher, is now playing one of Rufino's handmade instruments on indefinite loan. Here's the story.